The present invention relates to a device for inserting and extracting a disk cartridge for a recording/playback disk player.
The development of magnetooptical disk cartridges of a 64 mm diameter (commercially referred to as "minidisks") has been under way since the minidisk was first introduced (by Sony of Japan). Portable players, for recording and playing back information on minidisks, are currently commercially available (Sony model MZ-1). The commercially available player has a slot into which a minidisk is inserted. A minidisk cartridge is loaded onto the deck by the driving force of a motor, with the shutter of the cartridge being moved aside to open a communicating aperture, and is mounted on a turntable rotated by a spindle motor.
In general, it is desirable that a portable player be as light and small as possible, allow the rapid insertion/extraction of a disk cartridge, and have a very low rate of power consumption. However, due to the specific construction of the insertion means, i.e., via a slot, the Sony minidisk player has a complicated structure for insertion/extraction of the cartridge. Further, due to limitations determined by a motor, it is difficult to miniaturize and reduce the weight of the player and to speed up the inserting and extracting operations thereof. That is, a motorized apparatus is used to insert and/or draw out the minidisk, which thereby increases the player's overall power consumption. Accordingly, battery power is not efficiently utilized.